Hodgepodge in Ponderment
by The Queen Of Mischief
Summary: Hodgins ponders, pretty much. About his job, Angela, Zack's weirdness, everything. He ponders too much, really. Another fic in my series of one shots; see profile for details. No particular pairing, but there is fluff. PS is ponderment a word? Doubt it...


**Chapter 1**

"Hodgins, I need you to analyze the dirt found on the victim's clothes so we can hopefully find out where she was before she was killed." Upon seeing his blank look, Brennan added "Oh, I haven't told you yet, have I? The victim was dragged around from where she was at first to a new place where she was killed, so if we find out the original crime scene, we can start looking for clues there."

He nodded and grabbed a test tube and some forceps before going to the table where the corpse lay. He tried not to look at the skull. It made it a lot easier.

To see that face, grinning up at him, splattered with blood and grime and god-knows-what, it took all he had not to retch. After all those years on the job, he still hadn't gotten used to seeing the corpses lying there, in front of him.

It felt almost like they…_depended_ on him, relied on him to find out their killer and ensure justice be served, although the latter was not completely in his hands. All he did was present the facts, and the judge decided.

He looked at Zack, who was bent right over the skeleton, as though it were a cuddly teddy bear that smelt of fabric softener. The kid was _sniffing_ it. He knew at that moment, that Zack was not normal.

Well, he had always known that, but this just confirmed it. How could this person, the newest addition to the team, be so comfortable with the dead? Didn't he feel repulsed, anything?

He posed this question to Zack, who just looked at him, sincerely and said "The dead are much easier to read than the living. When you're dead, all the facts about you are just laid out, clearly in front of you. But when you're alive, it's not that easy. People lie, and deceive other people, and you can never tell what the real truth is. Evidence never lies."

"But why are you so awkward with…people? I mean, no offense, but let's face it: you're not exactly what I would call a socialite."

"I am aware of that. I don't like communicating with people because it takes too much effort. You have to be careful about what you say, and go against the basic human instinct of speaking your mind. You have to be something you're not. Why do that? So I didn't. And people think I'm standoffish or blunt, thus socially handicapped, or what some would call retarded."

Hodgins couldn't help but grin. Zack smiled back briefly, before bending back over the corpse and sticking his fingers in the eye sockets.

He took his forceps and started scraping off some of the dirt from the clothes (which lay close to the bones themselves) carefully. He found some charring on the sleeves as well. He took some of the burnt fabric back.

"Work your magic, baby," said a voice behind him as he got ready to examine to samples under a microscope. He smiled and turned around to see Angela standing there, grinning at him.

He put a hand on the back of her head, pulled her close, and kissed her. It was a short kiss, but of course, Cam saw. "Get a room, people," she said, rolling her eyes, but not really seeming to mind. They both grinned but blushed, somewhat. Cam promptly went into the next room after taking a few things.

"Guess what? I managed to reconstruct the victim's face, and found out that her name is Sandra Lewinsky."

"Great." He smiled and kissed her again. "I found out that the soil samples on the victim's clothes were Kaolin, commonly known as white dirt, found in Georgia. So she was probably in Georgia when she met with the killer, who then brought her here to finish the job. I can narrow it down to exactly where in Georgia to find the coordinates of the original crime scene."

"But why would he want to pull her so far away from the original spot?"

"That's what we have to find out." He said matter-of-factly.

"God, you are so sexy when you get all scientific." She said with a grin.

He chuckled.

She went off to find out more of the victim's background and so on.

--

"Booth, what should I do? I want to take her out somewhere, but I have no clue where! I mean, after the whole swings thing, I don't know how a second date could ever live up to that."

"Since I am a pro, I shall take pity on your terrible squint-y-ness."

Hodgins scowled but said nothing. You don't bite the hand that's feeding you.

"Dancing."

"What?"

"Take her dancing. To one of those underground things. But it has to be reasonably well-known and a decent place. By decent, I mean no crazy people with guns, no drugs, and tight security, so she doesn't think that you've taken her to some crack-house."

"You, know, that's actually not that bad an idea."

"I don't know whether to be flattered, or insulted." He replied drily.

Hodgins grinned and left, planning on asking her that very day.

Why, you may wonder. He felt he had been thinking entirely too much lately, and he needed to stop it, and Angela was so amazing. What better way to relax than with her, he reasoned.

--

"You really love her, don't you?" asked Brennan, out of the blue, when they happened to be in the same room, alone.

"Sorry, Dr. Brennan, what?"

"You love Angela, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, how can I not?"

"She loves you too." she said matter-of-factly.

"She does?"

"Yeah, she does."

"How do you know?"

"We're females, Hodgins, it's in our nature to gossip about such things."

"Wait, you mean she tells you everything?"

"Everything."

"_Everything_?"

"EVERYTHING."

"Whoa. Cam too?"

"Yep."

"But I thought she was the crazy fire breathing dragon lady."

Someone cleared her throat behind them. Hodgins spun around to see a very calm-looking Cam. "Crazy fire breathing _dragon_ lady?"

Okay, maybe not so calm.


End file.
